The illusion of « minimalist writing »…

No, there is nothing like « minimalism writing » in technical documentation … Neither John M. Carrol nor Hans van der Meij developed anything of that kind. Their research demonstrated the feasability of the MINIMALIST APPROACH (call it methodology or design philosophy) that is now an integral part of ISO 82079 (2019) – art. 5.3.3

Writing for a chatbot?

With new delivery channels spreading like mushrooms (VR, IoT, Information 4.0, Chatbots, etc.), information developers are struggling to provide less bla-bla and more concise, user-focused content. That’s what they call (erroneously) minimalist writing.

The path to Information 4.0

In his webinar « The path to Information 4.0« , the author speaks about « molecular content » that is « Simple in style (minimalist)« . You can apply a minimalist style in fashion or interior design, but you definitely can’t reduce the minimalism design philosophy to using less content or applying a simple style.

Make it brief?

Within its online courses, STC, the US-based professional society offers a « Minimalist writing » course with this definition:

« it is typical to see mere brevity taken as the central thrust of minimalism, …simplifying in this way makes minimalism easier for commentators to explain and discuss. Nevertheless, it also yields a view of minimalism that is a caricature. »

Make it plain!

When writing short sentences, using active voice, selecting simple, easily understandable words, the information developer is not practising « minimalist writing », but applying the PLAIN ENGLISH WRITING rules.

When launching a documentation project, the professional information developer will first ask « WHICH CHARACTERISTICS » should my content have and will go for a minimalism (user-oriented) approach.

In a second step, he will ask « HOW TO » write my content and will follow the PLAIN ENGLISH rules to optimize the user’s comprehension of the message.

Conclusion:

Minimalism and Plain English are 2 different approaches that you can use independently. Applying the PLAIN ENGLISH rules will definitely help reuse your content in a chatbot. They will also help you in getting a minimalism-based message accross, but for the content, there is still the need to implement the minimalism design philosophy.